U.S. Military Meals Ready to Eat (12 Packs) - Flameless Heaters, Freeze Dried Meals w/Entree, Side Dishes, & More - MRE Packs for Emergency Survival, Hunting, & More - Inspection Date 2023 or Better

I am not a part of the military and I have no experience with "real" MREs whatsoever and I don't know how they supposed to be, so this review is my subjective experience and opinion after I used them. This is my first time buying them for the purpose of checking what they are, how they taste and how well they preserve with my own experience. This review is for those like me, who is looking for a good preserved food that you potentially can take camping. The box I received in December of 2023 was manufactured in 2019, which is quite long for me. Since this is supposed to be preserved food and by checking on how people ate more than 30 year old MREs, I decided to give it a try. After calling emergency services preemptively and writing my will after saying goodbye to my family, I had my first hash brown with lemon drink MRE. It's been a week since and I have eaten 5 more MREs and I am still alive and I also didn't have any toilet issues. So, my friends, this food is save 5 years after manufacturing date. Given that it was not stored in some really improper conditions, of course. The taste. I would say, it's not bad. It is kind of on a level of store-bought frozen food for the main. But I was really impressed how preserved food can be quite decent. In my opinion, though, the highlights are the extra snacks and drinks you get with the main. They are also pretty good and most of the time actually taste better than the main. The portion size of the main is overall pretty small. It reminds me of the airplane portion size and is about a third of what I would eat if I cook myself the same thing. However together with the snacks it will satiate you for a while and let you not feel the hunger. One annoying issue I have with these MREs is heating it up with FRH. I don't know if I got bad batch or something, but I can never heat it well, especially when the food is mostly solid, like tortellini or pizza. I had good success with beef ravioli which went to a "normal warm" meal temperature, but for others it seems to mostly heat the bag and not the food. I followed all instructions properly and made sure the pad is wet, positioned it the way I was supposed to and all that, but the most I usually get is the temperature just above room level after 15 minutes of heating. And don't get me wrong, most of the time the FRH itself is piping hot (although sometimes it's not, maybe it expired or something). Just the food isn't. I prefer warming it in a bowl of tap hot water, or just poring the main out of the bag into a bowl and heating it on fire. One of the FRHs was somewhat damaged and the powder inside spilled out. Others take a lot longer to get hot than expected. Overall I succeeded in heating 1 time out of 5 with it. I am not sure if it's supposed to be barely warm, but I kinda expected the food to be hot enough to have steam. Only got steam 1 time, though. Oh, also tried the gum. It's kinda meh, but interesting overall. Cinnamony. Didn't try other stuff like towels or coffee. Had all the cold drinks that come with it and the pudding - liked all of them. It's not something you want to eat every day, but it's quite nice for what it is. And one of the meals had missing "accessory pack" - towel and cold drink. I am not sure if it was supposed to be like that or not, but I know that other people got this meal with the raspberry drink.

We're exactly what I expected. They were package well and no damage in shipping. Will be buying again

Tasty, good value and balanced calories.

No issues with quality of the meals. Though, two of the flameless ration heaters were punctured and leaked when adding water.

What can I say? I’ve bought multiple cases and I’ve always been satisfied. Will be back for more!

The U.S. Military Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) are the ultimate test of your taste buds’ will to live — a pack of self-contained meals that promises *sustenance* and delivers… memorable experiences. Each MRE comes with an entrée, sides, dessert, and weird little accessories that make you feel like a survivalist chef, but the real fun is in guessing whether the “beef stew” is actually beef, stew, or a bold new food category. They’re warmable in their own little heater bag (science!), shelf-stable for years (apocalypse ready!), and perfect for camping or emergency kits — just don’t expect Michelin stars. In short, MREs are reliable, rugged, and slightly mysterious meals that turn “What’s for dinner?” into “What *is* this?” with every bite.

I’m a new apartment owner and I have an active job. I’m not always up for cooking but need something hardy to get me through the day and my local microwaved meals weren’t doing it for me. I tried this thinking if it works for active soldiers, it should work for me. This is an obvious choice for camping and survival purposes, but I also highly recommended to single bachelors living alone and college students. Each pack is pretty generous with its variety, consisting of the labeled meal along with a couple of large crackers, a cheese or peanut butter spread, and usually 2 snacks and a desert. Not too shabby on the taste too, I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed every meal I tried. I would recommend adding a bit of water though to the more saucy meals to help cut the salt a bit and give it a better texture. The pack also comes with a few extra things that you won’t need unless you’re really out in the wilderness like a heating pack but you can just put the food in the microwave instead if you have one available to you. All-in-all very handy to have on hand whether you need a quick meal, food for camping, or emergency rations for your own personal disaster relief.